Prince of Wolves - Tasha Black Page 0,37

up in the moonlight spilling in from the window.

Inky vines climbed from their wrists up around their ring fingers, a physical reminder that their souls were now bound for all eternity.

“Ashe, are you ready to go home?” he asked her.

She nodded. “I want to go right away.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“We have so much to do,” she told him. “And we can’t let the queen send more monsters here to retrieve me. I don’t want to endanger my new friends anymore.”

He nodded.

“Besides,” she whispered. “I’ll bet you can’t wait to hold your son.”

23

Ashe

Ashe squeezed Varik’s hand tighter as the Winter Palace came into view.

Even after such a short time away, the icy brilliance of the scene above them was dazzling. Her eyes were overwhelmed with ice-refracted colors that didn’t even seem to exist in the mortal realm.

“They’re expecting us,” Varik told her.

She looked where he was pointing, and saw the guards at the top of the wall gazing down at them.

There was a bustle of activity in the courtyard below the wall - too much commotion for the late hour. Fairy lights twinkled on tall poles, and as they grew closer, she spotted flowers strung festively along them as well. The atmosphere seemed almost cheerful.

In fact, it looked like… a wedding.

The sound of bells approached from a distance, moving faster.

Ronan wiggled in Ashe’s arms, curious about the source of the noise.

A horse drawn sleigh drew near, the horses made of misty ice crystals not terribly different from the beast they’d fought at the library, but with more cheerful, pearly-white eyes instead of the unicorn’s unforgiving blue.

She recognized the riders at once, and her heart lifted at the sight of them.

“Torsten, Duncan,” Ashe cried, running for the sleigh, dragging Varik along with her.

Her brothers laughed and yelled for them to get in.

“What’s this, you have a pet?” Torsten teased her, patting Ronan on the head.

“This is Ronan,” she said. “He’s more than a pet. And this is Varik.”

“Torsten and Duncan,” Torsten said.

He and Duncan clasped Varik’s arm respectfully in turn and Ashe’s heart broke a little at the look of wonder on Varik’s face.

His hang-ups about royalty were something they needed to work on.

“Sit, sit,” Torsten said. “We have so much catching up to do.”

Ashe and Varik sat opposite her brothers, with Ronan between them.

Duncan waved his hand and the horses set off, bells jingling across the snowy meadow.

“First of all, we know why you don’t have magic, Ashe,” Torsten began. “And it’s not your fault.”

So she wasn’t the only one who’d learned a few secrets while she was gone. She had been more than a little nervous about how to break that news to them. And she was still worried about how they would take it.

“You are our sister,” Duncan said, his voice deep and rusty-sounding, as if from disuse. “That doesn’t change.”

“Duncan’s right,” Torsten said, nodding. His familiar face, usually so cheerful was pained as he tried to find the words to tell her what they’d learned.

“I already know as well, brothers,” she said, sparing him the trouble. “I am a changeling. I saw the original princess on my way into the other realm. She is called Willow, and she should be in our realm somewhere.”

Ashe assumed that meeting Willow was exactly how they’d learned of her troubled past.

Duncan nodded once and sat back.

“She is safe with us,” Torsten said, confirming her suspicions. He looked into her eyes as he took her hand. “You understand that this changes nothing between us. We love you. You will always be our sister.”

She blinked back the tears she hadn’t expected to shed.

“Our parents, on the other hand, are in real trouble,” Torsten went on. “The people are furious that this was done, and more so that it was done in order to send our men to die in a needless war.”

“Have they been taken into custody?” Varik asked.

“They ran,” Torsten said. “The king and queen are gone. They know what fate holds for them, so we are unlikely to see them again. Though I am committed to begin the search to bring our parents to justice. I leave tomorrow.”

Varik let his head fall into his hands at Torsten’s words.

Ashe wrapped her arms around him and Ronan licked his cheek, oblivious to why his father had been brought so low.

“Is he okay?” Torsten asked.

“We need the queen back,” Ashe told him quietly. “Only she can lift the curse on his son that makes him a wolf when Varik is fae.”

“His son?” Torsten asked.

“His